Felting

At the textiles department Hannah introduced us to felting today. She explained how felting works and how to use the felt loom, hand felting and the needle punch machine.

Felting can be used to create a nonwoven and nonknit fabric, which doesn’t fray. Generally make from wool, but can incorporate other fibres (recycled yarns), felting can be used to join to fabric, however the needle punching will break the fabric. A loose weave fabric works best. It can also be used to join to layers of fabric.

I also made a sample using the felt loom. I left it quite loose to be able to process it further.

Thinking about useful applications for felting:

• Add padding (shoulders) or lining to an existing garment
• Extend a garment by adding felting into ‘gaps’
• Adding an interesting decoration
• Close a hole or tear in a garment